JT Floyd may have saved the game

I've had a chance to review the game again. Every Michigan fan should watch JT Floyd's tackle of Braxton Miller inside the 5 after the fumbled punt snap. The result of the drive was a FG, but Floyd prevented a touchdown with some of the best hustle I have ever seen in this game.

JT blitzed from the right side on the play, wound up well in the backfield. Miller broke contain and headed down the sideline for a sure TD but Floyd raced all the way from 10 yards deep in the backfied and tackled him at the 5.

Michigan then turned the Buckeyes back and forced a FG. A TD there would have given ohio a 31-30 lead and a heck of a lot of momentum. JT Floyd's hustle was just massive and helped Michigan to maintain a lead.

I can't find the video, would really appreciate it if someone could link it if possible. You really need to see it.

Uh, I think the thread was started to praise a terrific and arguably game-saving play by a player who has massively improved this year and who showed true passion in the Big Game. It's the kind of thing happy fans do after an epic and program-altering win.

"We will do our very best to carry on the Michigan tradition of excellence... And what I ask is that everyone that's for us is for us." Michigan Football Coach Jim Harbaugh

Yes. I can't really see giving Mattison heat for his choices. Braxton taking off and running was good for about 7 yards per attempt (if not defended). Braxton passing deep only connected about 33% of the time.

Better to pressure Braxton so you compound his accuracy problems and reduce is ability to set up a long run. With a dual threat guy you have to gamble and Mattison made the right one. I'm just glad he doesn't "spy" but instead blitzes or delay blitzes. I hate that whole "we'll have a guy stand there and not pass rush or cover". It's basically 10 man defense, urgh.

When we played ND, our D was still learning the system and, quite honestly, still learning to believe in themselves. It wasn't a surprise to give up 30 points to them. But OSU's offense was terrible. We made their passing game much better than what it really was.

you underestimate Devier Posey. It was noted before the game that he would probably be the best receiver Michigan faced this year. He's big and fast, has great hands, great moves. ND's Floyd is good, tall, good jumper, but not as agile as Poset. I would say JT showed that he's not as agile and fast as Posey either.
This was not a surprise.

How much better would our offense have been had we added a senior Braylon for the last two games of the year?

Little else we can do, Countess seems to have the speed to counter top B10 WR's but I don't know if we have anyone else.

It's known Floyd doesn't have top level speed but his play has been drastically improved this year just like everyone else on the D. But the fact our 2ndary might not have the speed to match elite WR's is likely to be the case for next year as well. Need to fix this with recruiting,obviously, which I'm sure Hoke is doing.

Mattison didn't change up the playcalls because we had more important things to worry about than recievers getting open deep. If you'll recall, Braxton was having a pretty tough time actually hitting them. If he ever learns to throw an accurate deep ball, he'll be scary. Until then, meh.

Also, big props to Mattison for NOT switching to a gaddamned prevent defense on that final drive. This year, more than any other that I can remember, has seen team after team take a lead/tie the game late, only to give up the go-ahead/tying score while trying to sit back in a prevent defense. Think UM vs ND, Wiscy vs MSU, Wiscy vs OSU, Baylor vs Oklahoma, and coutless others. Hell, we did it to Iowa if not for a few bad calls.

Being that we were one of the best teams at forcing and recovering fumbles, I agree. The D showed some growing pains today playing one of the best WRs on the schedule other than MF. Next year Floyd will have a great coverage season, and Blake will surpass that, and Trent and Hollowell will hopefully keep pace.

Black blew up his block and forced Miller to loop around to the outside which gave the rest of the D time to swarm near the sideline. Black was also able to recover from Miller getting around him and taking him down by his ankles.

"Third and one, third and two, short yardage, you’re gonna try to run the ball on us? We’ve been good at it. And Jibreel Black -- give him credit, because he made a tremendous play on that boot. That’s probably one of the best plays I’ve ever seen him make. Being very disciplined against a really good athlete.”

I think no one questioned the commitment of these guys ever and that play demonstrated how committed all of us are.

I also liked the JT Floyd tackle where he stopped Braxton Miller in his tracks and threw him behind the 1st down marker (Miller did get the 1st down though) but man handling Miller like that was a joy to behold.

I agree I loved that tackle even though Miller got the 1st down. You could just see the hustle, the commitment, the determination in JT's play right there. Miller is a big kid and Floyd really worked his ass off to try and win the game right there on that play.

And of course, Spielman said that if he wrapped up he could've prevented that. I don't think that's true at all when Miller is in the air like that.

spielman said that, had JT Floyd wrapped up, he might have been able to drop Miller in bounds to keep the clock running after the sticks were set. Instead, Miller landed out of bounds and the clock stopped until the snap. Ultimately didn't matter (thanks, Courtney Avery), of course...

if they gave him forward momentum on the play, (the correct ruling) shouldnt he have been ruled down in bounds where his forward momentum was stopped, rather than out of bounds? if he wasnt ruled down until he went out of bounds, the spot should have been ruled where the ball was when he hit out of bounds, no?

I may just have this rule wrong in my head, however, I think I am right. Please let me know.

While Spielman appears fair, he always seems to go a bit far with his criticism. He latches onto a theme early, and right or wrong, runs it into the ground throughout the game. I enjoy games called by Chris, but I'm ready for someone else to call Michigan games. It was better earlier in the year when Urban Meyer was there to "correct" him when he made silly-ass comments (e.g., when Lewan latched onto a Northwestern player and donkey punched him 10 yards downfield. Spielman went off about illegal downfield blocking (even though it was a screen pass and is totally allowed). Meyer tried twice to correct him and then gave up.

I do wish Meyer would have stuck to broadcasting. He could have left the Ohio job to Ron Zook - now that would have been a treat!

“I hope that someday we will be able to put away our fears and prejudices and just laugh at people.”

Yes he was beat a couple times, but so was everyone else in our freakin secondary. After watching the game again, I realized that sometimes JT was chasing down mistakes made by other people.

The play referred to in this thread was a GAME SAVER! Why?? Because we know for sure Braxton would have scored on that play. The other plays, who knows...the WR may have dropped the ball or anything could have happened.

The fact remains, JT does not have the speed for Mattison to continue to place him on the opposing team's best WR, but he steps up to the challenge every game. This allows the other 10 guys to be aggressive. Mattison knows what he's doing and I trust him.

Keep doing your thing JT.. The Sugar Bowl (and possibly Houston) may be your biggest challenge yet, but I know you will step up and perform as you have all year long.

Reporter: “Did you visit the Parthenon while in Greece?”
Shaquille O’Neil: “I can’t really remember the names of all the clubs we went to.”

As great of a play as it was by JT, and may I had I am very impressed with him this season and think he could have improved more than anyone else on our team, we did win the game by 6 points so it could be a moot point since the touchdown would have only added for more. Granted I know the playcalling could have been different and what not but just wanted to throw it out there.

It also helps that Miller was slowing up and thought he had scored. Floyd was full speed and Miller clearly didn't expect it and you can see Miller start to slow up when the thought he had the touchdown easy. Im glad he didnt he 100% and I am glad Floyd did go 100%

I attended the Game yesterday, and got back to Chicago a few hours ago. I'm rewatching on DVR now (Koger just scored his TD), and when Floyd caught Miller before the goal line stand that forced the FG, I thought, "holy shit, I didn't realize how far Floyd came to make that play."

Yes, I agree with everyone else that Floyd's dodgy coverage almost cost UM - but as others have pointed out, he was left on an island with an NFL caliber player - no doubt Posey got the better of him, but that tackle on Miller at the 5 was enormous. Great hustle.

I was at the game and thought Floyd played pretty badly overall, but after watching the game on replay and seeing how he hustled back after blitzing on that play and caught Miller to save a TD, I give him huge credit for contributing to the win in crunch time. Enormous play by him.

That pass didn't connect - it was overthrown by about four yards or so.

In my opinion, the whole defense was geared to defend against the pass, and most of the time, it was working save for several notable instances. Braxton Miller still is not a good passer overall. His ability to haul off and run was what scared me at several points - Mattison didn't seem to leave enough coverage to account for that part of his game.

We won all the same, of course, so I will simply say that I have confidence that things like perimeter defense and defending other dual-threat QBs will be worked on.

"Funny isn't it, how naughty dentists always make that one fatal mistake."

...but the last few Ohio drives most of all, although I had thought there was trend towards trying to defend against the pass as we went deeper into the game. In the beginning, I would agree we were trying to stop the run flat out.

NOTE: There were post-game festivities as well, so in reality, god knows how this game is encoded in my brain now.

"Funny isn't it, how naughty dentists always make that one fatal mistake."

Sure looked as if the focus was on stopping Herron (mission accomplished) and controlling Miller's runs (mission half accomplished) and daring them to beat us with the passing game. They almost did, but banking on Miller being scatter-armed eventually paid off. Next year, he'll be more accuirate, I imagine, and we will need to account for that.

left at least 2 gift-wrapped TDs on the field, and Floyd was responsible for coverage on both. I was horrified by his coverage breakdowns; I'm talking 15-20 yards off his man. It's great that he made some good plays, but I would absolutely predict our bowl game opponent to pick on him all day.

Mattson has done the best he could with the players available. They've improved spectacularly well. But the secondary is not Posey-calibre fast. So you can either leave a huge cushion, and give OSU medium-distance passes for easy short gains (that Miller doesn't have that much trouble throwing) whenever they want one, or you can try to take those away, accepting that Posey will often break open, and count on Miller only hitting a couple of those at best. That's what Mattison chose. And he was right. We gave up a couple of touchdowns on long strikes, but mostly Miller missed them. Including the one at the end of the game. Mattison made a calculated risk, based on the observed strengths and weaknesses of Miller as a QB and our secondary, and it seems to have been the correct decision.

The DB's have caught a lot of heat all year and again in this game. It appeared as the DB's first look was always to stop the run. Our safety is always at the line of scrimmage instead of being a safety. As stated in The Wolverine the linebacker play was not good. They didn't do a good job of filling the lanes. That's been the case all year. It was worse last year.